United States
Healthy restaurants in the USA.
Written by Gillian McKeith
America can feed you beautifully or it can wreck you, and the gap between those two outcomes is usually one street corner wide. I have spent a great deal of time eating my way across this country, and the kitchens on this page are the ones I trust: 54 of them so far, in 10 cities.
Start with New York and Los Angeles, where I have written full guides. Then work through Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami, all of which now have enough good kitchens to make a proper week of it.
The test never changes, wherever I am standing: purity, wholesomeness, organic where the chef can manage it, and an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains and seeds. Nobody on this page has paid me a penny to be here.
Cities with a full guide
- New York
17 restaurants · abcV, Avant Garden, Beyond Sushi
- Los Angeles
9 restaurants · Botanica, Café Gratitude, Crossroads Kitchen
More American cities
- Miami6
Della Bowls, Love Life Cafe, Plant Miami
- Boston5
Clover Food Lab, Life Alive Organic Cafe, True Bistro
- Philadelphia5
Bar Bombón, Charlie was a sinner., HipCityVeg
- San Francisco5
Ananda Fuara, Greens, Nourish Cafe
- Chicago4
Amitabul, Chicago Diner, Handlebar
- Austin1
Counter Culture
- Oakland1
Millennium
- West Hollywood1
Gracias Madre
Eating well in America, answered.
- Which American cities have the best healthy restaurants?
- New York and Los Angeles are still the two cities where you can eat properly well every single day of the week without planning your route in advance. New York gives you the range, from Dirt Candy to abcV to a bowl shop on a corner. Los Angeles gives you the produce, because California grows it and the chefs there know how to leave it alone. After those two I would put San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago, all three of which have kitchens I would happily send my own family to.
- Is it hard to eat healthily while travelling in America?
- It is harder than it should be, and I will not pretend otherwise. Portions are enormous, sugar turns up where it has no business being, and the word salad gets used very loosely. But every city on this page has kitchens cooking with real fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains and seeds, and once you know their names you are fine. That is the entire point of this guide.
- Do these places have to be fully vegan?
- No. I am plant-forward, not plant-only. Some of these dining rooms are entirely vegan, some are vegetarian, and a few serve meat but cook vegetables so well that leaving them out would be dishonest. What matters to me is purity, wholesomeness, organic sourcing where the chef can manage it, and fresh produce actually reaching the plate.
- Do restaurants pay to be listed on this page?
- Not a cent. I choose every American kitchen on this page myself, on the same test I apply everywhere else in the world. Restaurants can claim their listing to keep the details straight, and that changes nothing about whether I include them.
- My American city is not here yet. Can I suggest a restaurant?
- Please do. America is enormous and I am one woman with one appetite. If you know a kitchen in Austin, Seattle, Denver, Portland or anywhere else that genuinely cooks clean wholefood, send it in through the recommend form and I will look at it properly.
Know an American kitchen I have missed? Recommend it here, or browse the rest of my city guides.
About the author
Written by Gillian McKeith
I'm Gillian McKeith: television presenter, creator of the global hit show You Are What You Eat, writer, nutritionist, and the editor behind this guide. Every entry here is chosen and written by me. I judge kitchens on the things that actually matter: real ingredients, honest sourcing, vegetables cooked with care, and food you feel better for eating.
Nothing on this page is a paid placement. Restaurants cannot buy a recommendation, and any listing marked as sponsored is labelled as such. If a kitchen slips, it comes out of the guide.